New Hampshire Department of Education Whole Grain-Rich Exemption

New Hampshire Department of Education Whole Grain-Rich Exemption

Beginning July 1, 2014, federal regulations require that all grains offered in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program must be whole grain-rich. USDA is offering flexibility in this area for those School Administrative Units (SAUs) that removed previously popular pasta menu items that, when produced with whole grain-rich pasta, did not hold well or were not accepted by students (meaning students no longer consumed or selected the popular item), and the SAU is able to demonstrate hardship in obtaining acceptable whole grain-rich pasta for that menu item.

SAU’s that wish to take advantage of the flexibility waiver for SY 2014-2015 or SY 2015-2016 must demonstrate that they experienced significant challenges in preparing and serving whole grain-rich pasta products in their schools and must obtain approval from NH Department of Education, Division of Program Support, Bureau of Nutrition Programs and Services (the Bureau).

Please complete this Whole Grain-Rich Waiver in order to continue to serve traditional enriched pasta during SY 2014-2015 or SY 2015-2016.

SAU #
Waiver request date
SAU name
FSD name / Phone #, Ext (if applicable)
FSD email

Requesting a waiver for:

____ Entire SAU OR _____ Individual sites (Please list individual sites below)

Select reason(s) for waiver and describe efforts to obtain an acceptable product replacement:

• Financial hardship (Provide adequate documentation that supports financial hardship.)

_____The SFA’s records provided to the State agency demonstrate a significant drop in the meal counts after the whole grain-rich product was offered.

_____The SFA experienced a significant cost increase when procuring the whole grain-rich product.

• Unacceptable product quality (Provide surveys or other documentation to support taste and texture impact.)

_____ WGR Product holding negatively impacted taste and/or texture.

• Poor student acceptability (Provide documentation that shows the whole grain product was offered multiple times and over a sustained period of time.)

_____WGR pasta menu resulted in decreased participation when served, due to taste and/or texture unacceptability by students.

_____Negative student/parent feedback when WGR pasta served, due to taste/and or texture

• Limited product availability (Provide back-up documentation of manufacturer communications and date when whole grain product will be available.)

_____The SFA does not have access to a compliant whole grain-rich product in the local market and would like to offer enriched grain items temporarily.

Please describe efforts and hardship results in obtaining an acceptable whole grain rich pasta product (please use additional page if needed:

Please describe the plan to achieve future compliance with the full whole grain-rich requirement once the exemption expires.

______

This flexibility is available only until acceptable products are available and identified and while the SAU can demonstrate a continued negative impact. USDA reference memo: SP 47-2014( Memo SP 20-2105

Submit this waiver to: US Mail: NH Dept. of Education, Bureau of Nutrition Programs and Services, 101 Pleasant St., Concord, NH 03301 c/o Cheri White or Email: or Fax: to Cheri White, 603-271-1953 (If faxing, it is recommended that you follow up with us to ensure that the fax was received.)